Introduction

The Sony Xperia XA is a new and affordable 5-inch Android phone that aims to win your attention with its eye-catchy looks and futuristic, edge-to-edge display.

Powered by the Helio P10 system chip that is often used in even more affordable phones out of China, the Xperia XA is no performance beast, nor does it claim to have a ground-breaking camera or amaze with battery life. Apart from the wow-inducing edge-to-edge screen, this really is your run-of-the-mill Android phone that does not seem to stand out with anything else at first look.

Is it really so? And is the Xperia XA worth your attention? Join us as we dive in the specifics to find out.

Design

The edge-to-edge screen looks impressive and cool, and a metal frame is nice to have.

The Sony Xperia XA is a fairly good-looking phone and its cool edge-to-edge screen is the one feature that makes it stand out among its rivals. The slightly tapered towards the edges screen makes it easier for your finger to glide along the glass surface, and this type of design also makes side bezel almost non-existent, so that the phone can be very narrow and more compact. We don’t think this is a game-changer in any way, but such an edge-to-edge screen is nonetheless a nice feature to have. It's great to look at, for sure.

The handset also comes in four fresh colors: white, black, lime gold and rose gold.

Тhe Xperia XA features a plastic frame and a plastic back cover, but we think it still feels nice and, unlike trendy glass surfaces, it is not a fingerprint magnet.

Disappointingly, there is no fingerprint scanner on the Xperia XA. Fingerprint security has become the de facto security standard for our phones, so it’s a real pity that Sony has decided not to equip its XA with a fingerprint reader.

Just in case you’re wondering, the handset also lacks any form of special water protection.

Dimensions

Weight

Display

The 5” 720p display on the Xperia XA is not the worst, but it has cold and oversaturated colors that are not well balanced.

The Xperia XA features a 5” display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. At this resolution, you can see a bit of pixelization and the screen does not look perfectly sharp.

Colors are also far from perfect: whites appear annoyingly bluish, and colors on the whole are way overblown and not well balanced. Why is this important? Simple: it makes all the colors in images and video appear different from what their creators intended them to look like.

On a more positive note, the screen does get quite bright and is legible even under direct sunlight. Viewing angles are not bad, as well, as brightness is retained at different angles.

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

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Posts: 279; Member since: Apr 18, 2015

Hopeless from Sony. All the three phones in the X series are of the same size and design offering nothing different except the internals which the average consumer couldn't care less about. I hope they bring new set of phones this fall. This could be their very last chance.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 9:21 AM 0

Posts: 2024; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

I turned off ABP just to comment on this. I wanted to make a note that the version that B&H Photo is selling has support for bands 12 and 17, so the point on LTE isn't fully correct.
That aside, the review has made me so sad. I had the 5x, which was cool but felt too tall for me and the fact that the XA sucks is a bummer. I was waiting for this phone, seems like I was waiting to be disappointed. I'm waiting on 2 more reviews from my other tech sites before I decide to throw in the towel.
I really wanted it to be a little 5" screen savior because sometimes my hands get tired from holding a 5.2" phone. The pricing seemed to be right originally, but seeing that this is the performance and that the 5x has better battery life over this. Welp, not as interested.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 9:32 AM 1

Posts: 2942; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 11:35 AM 0

Posts: 2024; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

I'll check it out thanks. If it doesn't have the bands I need, it will be dead for me. I like my Robin a lot but sometimes I get tired of holding it and would like something smaller.
Edit: I checked it out and the bands suck for the USA. :/

posted on Jul 13, 2016, 7:36 PM 0

Posts: 896; Member since: May 07, 2014

posted on Jul 13, 2016, 7:39 PM 0

Posts: 13; Member since: Apr 14, 2015

Thanks for the input, but consider SONY still sells 40% of market in Japan. They will prosper, but losing T Mobile in US very bad.
There were the M4 and M5 as cheaper models, before Z3+, Z4 . This phone will help SONY sell in countries where cheaper needed.
This Commenter Libra89 states above, there are models with LTE support,

posted on Jul 20, 2016, 10:27 PM 0

Posts: 443; Member since: Oct 02, 2015

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 9:37 AM 0

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

meh.. should be 0.5/10
they re-used this ugly design for years and looks at that massive bezels, pffft
and look at that crappy spec, I bet they make huge profit for each of this product just to make their investor smile

posted on Jul 12, 2016, 1:12 AM 1

Posts: 1009; Member since: Feb 20, 2015

posted on Jul 12, 2016, 1:20 AM 3

Posts: 209; Member since: Jun 27, 2015

I had hope for Sony. I like the that signature look of their phones, contrary to other people's complaints of "same old design". But Sony has really dug out the last pile of dirt out of their grave hole this time. Especially with their outrageous pricing. Sony Mobile can just die now. Really, please just die.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 11:07 AM 3

Posts: 552; Member since: May 18, 2016

Sony made the biggest mistake of using the MTK Helio P10. They should follow Asus doing a trio SD... SD 625 for mid, SD 652 mid-high & SD 820 high end.
(FYI, Asus Zenfone 3 with SD 625 has a 60K Antutu score, more than this 40K+ antutu of Helio P10)

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 11:14 AM 0

Posts: 870; Member since: Oct 17, 2011

Sony just can no longer compete in the mobile phone segment. All the phones they release are going to be compared to the cheaper but better specs Chinese phones and they will lose all the time. I am a Sony fan but maybe it's time to close shop if they have no answer to the fast rising Chinese phonemakers or else they will just continue to bleed.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 6:08 PM 0

Posts: 202; Member since: Nov 15, 2015

I don't agree with phone arena about the camera being not good. I saw many reviews on YouTube. Everyone reviewer says camera is better than Samsung J7 2016.
I must say battery life is hopeless. The top bezel should have been little smaller.
And ofcourse it is stupid really not to have used atleast snapdragon 617. Really stupid of sony.
No custom roms atleast like m4 aqua.
Atleast phone doesn't overheat.
I am looking forward to buy a secondary phone for normal use.i wanted the XA.
But seems like i will buy M5 ot Zenaphone.3.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 11:51 AM 1

Posts: 202; Member since: Nov 15, 2015

Haha PA says overstaturated colors.
I wonder why?
The display offers same amoled like display quality on a lcd.
It is good.
Then PA has to brand every Samsung Galaxy phone to have unrealistic colors.
Quite funny.
Lol
I would have given a 6.5
Btw sony said Xperia XA and E5 have a battery life bug on marshmallow.
They will fix it they told.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 11:55 AM 0

Posts: 20; Member since: Apr 05, 2012

I own this phone, And I disagree with PA on several aspects. The Camera- Apart from some cold looking pics, the camera is actually very good. Video is Normal and could have been better. The sound from speakers is not loud but its way better with the quality than iphone when I compared it(Believe me it is true). Call reception is also much much better and comparable to iphone (6s). Display ?? Well Iphone seems a joke in front of it. Yes iphone was better with the Gamma Values but was way yellowish with the whites and no options to correct it(atleast you could set the temperature with your own) and XA looked much livelier and better. Battery life is joke though, and iphone easily managed to beat it.
Now for the PA's part, I know this is a serious allegation, but I believe PA actually bashes Sony too hard and praises iphone like they are paying for the praises. I have certainly noticed that Sony always had some better Mid to High end models that could even beat the flagships from other companies. But its a pattern that PA never reviews those phones and Skips them for good (Be it Xperia M5, Xperia C5, Xperia E4) and now they did reviewed XA, their review contradicts with every other reviews.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 3:33 PM 1

Posts: 418; Member since: Aug 25, 2014

posted on Jul 12, 2016, 4:05 AM 0

Posts: 2024; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

Fair point, but they did say that there are other options that are a bit better for the same money. That aside, both GSMarena and Phone Arena said that the battery life is kind of sad. That is what I probably zeroed on as a commonality.